Systems and methods consistent with the present invention are directed to a long distance service bureau that periodically polls long distance carriers for current rate information and stores user carrier preference information to automatically determine, or to allow a user to determine, a long distance carrier to use for a particular long distance, or tariff, call.
Traditionally, users selected long distance carriers for their long distance, or tariff, calls one of two ways. First, a user could designate a default long distance carrier through which all of the user's telephone calls were automatically routed. This type of selection was inherently insufficient because it did not take into consideration the different rates offered by other long distance carriers when the user placed the telephone call.
Second, a user could manually select a long distance carrier through which to route the user's telephone call. Such manual selection of a long distance carrier allowed the user to choose, for example, the long distance carrier offering the least expensive toll at the time the user placed the telephone call. Although permitting greater freedom of choice, manual long distance carrier selection presents several problems for the user. For example, to choose a long distance carrier other than the designated default long distance carrier, the user must manually select every telephone call. Moreover, to maximize the effectiveness of manual long distance carrier selection, the user must either be knowledgeable regarding various long distance parameters, or have ready access to such information. To select the long distance carrier offering the least expensive rate, for example, the user must know all of the available long distance carriers, as well as their various rates. To complicate matters, long distance rates for a particular long distance carrier vary not only from day to day, but from hour to hour as well.
Several recent systems address these traditional problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,914 issued to Blumhardt discloses a system for real-time selection of a long distance carrier. The system employs an advanced intelligent network having a service control point that retrieves carrier rate information, such as tolls charged for particular calling days and calling times, for various long distance carriers from a network database. When a user places a telephone call, the service control point determines the long distance carrier having the least expensive toll for the day and time of the telephone call, and automatically routes the call using that long distance carrier.
The system of the Blumhardt patent has two inherent problems: it lacks flexibility and does not provide reliable carrier rate information. Flexibility is a problem because selecting the lowest-cost carrier may not always be the carrier the user wants for a particular call, since, for example, not all long distance carriers offer the same quality connection. Reliability is a problem because Blumhardt provides no mechanism for updating the carrier rate database so the carrier rate information becomes outdated due to the variable nature of the rates of the various long distance carriers.
A system that addresses one of these problems is U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,728 issued to Treat. This patent discloses a telephone call monitoring, metering, and selection device that displays the rates offered by various long distance carriers to a user so that the user can select the carrier of his choice. The device requires the user to manually enter the identity of the various carriers and their access numbers and rates so that the device can display such information to the user when the user desires to place a telephone call. Because this system depends upon manual input of the rate information, however, the user must continuously update the rate information to current information.
Another system that addresses this problem is U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,395 issued to Berenato. This patent discloses a telephone line selector that polls the various long distance carriers for current rate information each time a user places a telephone call. When the user dials a long distance telephone number, the telephone line selector temporarily suspends the user's call while it calls each long distance carrier to obtain current rate information. Once the telephone line selector determines the lowest cost long distance carrier, it routes the user's telephone call on the lowest cost carrier, using the dialed telephone number. Because this system updates all of the rate information for the long distance carriers each time the user places a long distance call, however, the system tends to be undesirably slow.
In light of the above systems, a need exists to rapidly provide users with current rate information while also permitting automatic carrier selection for particular calls.